Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.

Saturday, 2 March 2013

US Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara on March 1, 2013.An anti-US demonstration has been held outside the Turkish prime minister’s
office in Ankara to protest against the official visit of US Secretary of State
John Kerry, who is in the country to coordinate plans to support militants
fighting the Syrian government.On Friday, police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, who were trying
to break through a security cordon around Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
office in the capital, the Associated Press reported.

The demonstrators were holding banners reading “Kerry get out” and condemned
the “imperialist powers” for waging wars against countries.Kerry, who is making his first overseas trip as secretary of state, arrived
in Ankara earlier in the day on the fifth leg of his tour of nine European and
Middle Eastern countries to rally support for the militants fighting the
government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.In a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday, the US
secretary of state hailed Ankara’s leading role in backing the armed insurgency
against the Syrian government, saying that Washington and Ankara will continue
“to try to create a political transition” in Syria.Before arriving in Turkey, Kerry visited Britain, Germany, France, and
Italy.In Rome on Thursday, he pledged an additional $60 million in assistance for
the foreign-backed opposition in Syria — the so-called Syrian National
Coalition.Kerry is also scheduled to visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, and Qatar before returning to the United States.Meanwhile, female members of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican
People’s Party (CHP), held a conference in the southern city of Iskenderun to
denounce the deployment of Patriot surface-to-air (SAM) missiles along the
country’s border with Syria.All of the Patriot systems, which are deployed by the US, Germany, and the
Netherlands, became operational in the southern cities of Gaziantep,
Kahramanmaras, and Adana last month.In November 2012, NATO announced a plan to deploy six batteries to “protect
Turkey” from potential Syrian missile strikes.Damascus has censured the deployment of the Patriot missiles along the Syrian
border, calling it another act of provocation by the Turkish government.The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large
numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed.Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and
there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign
nationals.The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, and Turkey, are supporting the armed groups.In an interview recently broadcast on German television, the Syrian president
said that the government did not start the conflict and the militant groups were
the ones killing Syrian citizens and destroying the country’s
infrastructure.

No Peace Without Hezbollahand Hezbollahwill not compromiseon a grainof soil of Palestine.

"The Palestinian cause is definitely at a turning point . What will happen next we don’t know . With the fall of HAMAS in the sectarian set up has fallen the last bastion of the Palestinian Resistance if bastion there were . During more than sixty years the cause has remained stagnant if not worse. And even if the PLO thinks that it had succeeded in preserving the Palestinian identity , what about the other goals? What about Palestine? What about the land ? Even this identity is a double edged sword , it has separated the cause from its Arab belonging and has not retrieved the land . " - Daniel Mabsout,

I would add the whole region, may be the whole world is at a turning point. From the Syrian womb, a new middle east and a new multipole is emerging. The question is wheather there is a place for Palestine in middle east map?.

Before Yesterday, I wrote:

"After 1973 war Kissinger said: No war without Egypt, and no peace without Syria. In front of the failurein thedomestication ofSyria, and the failure to destroy Hezbollah in July 2006, the enemy thought that by destroying Syria they would isolate Hezbollah and liquidate the Palestinian cause. Having failed to defeat Syria, the would think they would bribe Hezbollah, as they did with international brotherhood, and sublet Lebanon to Hezbollah. Yesterday Nasrallah implicitly declared the he will notbe a part inany settlementof the crisisSyrianorIranian nuclear file, instead he laida new equation:

No Peace Without Hezbollahand Hezbollahwill not compromiseon a grainof soil of Palestine.

They say, a picture is worth a thousand words. The picture below posted by brother Daniel worth a million words. I have posted the same picture in many posts. The last was few days ago while comparing the the 'democracy' in Moroco and the 'dictatorship' in Syria.

My problem with the picture is not kissing hands.

The problem is why Haniya is kissing the filty hand of Qaradawi?

Most likely, Daniel, selected the picture as a milestone for the sectarian spring known as the "arab spring"

Here is a picture for Seyyed Nasrallah, taken after the Iiberation of south Lebanon, kissing the hand of Khamenei, expressing his loyality and grtitude for the Iranian great support that made the liberation possible.

This picture worth bilion words, a milestone, theendof the era of defeats, andthebeginningof the eraofvictories.

In April 2001, the supremeleaderof the Iranian revolutionopened theconference "inSupportofthe Palestinian Second Intifada", he notedthat "Israel" left lebanon lastyear because the LebaneseHezbollah backed by Iran refused to compromise, and that the Palestinianswill notacceptcompromisesorbargainsanymore.

"the armedstruggle not dialoguemustbepursued because isnotthelanguageIsraelunderstand"

After the ImamKhamenei'sspeech, SayyedHassanNasrallahwenttowardstheSupremeLeaderand kissed hishand. When asked about why he did that in a formalmeeting, he said.

"I have deliberately done it with complete sinceritybecausethe world mediaconsidered me the "Man of the Year", and in the Arab countries " the mostsuccessful leader in the Arab world", so, inthis important meetingattended byleaders ofIslamic movementsandpolitical figuresof theIslamic Countries, broadcasteddirectlyintheworld, I wanted saytoall: "I am just a soldier oftheRevolution"

When we talk about the liberation of South Lebanon, we have to remember Syria and Iran. For Syria south Lebanon is an Occupied Syrian land and for Iran its an occupied Islamic Land, it is JABAL AAMIL the Shia historic Custodial, since Abu Tharr al-Ghfari, and, I guess the birth place of Sheykh Lotfollah who introduced Shiism into Iran. In Lebanon, Lebanon's patriotism, both Arab and Syrian Nationalism, Communism, failed to achieve anything because Palestine was not the focal point. After the Islamic revolution in Iran, Lebanon's patriotism, Arab-Syrian Nationalism, and Islamic Iran worked in Hanrmony, and that Harmony made the liberation possible. And to be fair, not to forget, many of Hezbollah freedom fighters including the Great leader Martyr Imad Mughniyeh were trained by Fateh, they fought with Palestinian left weapons and built on the Palestinian experience.

On the other hand, we have to remember the following:

From 1948 upto 1967 the Arab armies especially in Lebanon and Jordan wereprotectors ofIsrael's borders. In 1955, Palestianian refugee living in border zone were deported to north Litani, to stop few Palestinian cells working with Syrian and Egyptian inteligence. My father was leading one Egyption cell, Our neighbour Abu Kayed was leading the Syrian cell.

In 1958, the peak of Arab Nationalism movement, Fateh was founded to close ( not to re-open) the Palestinian file as Alan Hart claimed. The armedstruggle against Israel, and the Petro-dollar were Fateh tools to pull the rug fromunder the feet ofthe Arab Nationalist Movement.

With 1967 Naksa Arafat achieved his first goal and and started working for the second (closing the Palestinian file). Hani Al-Hassan declared in London that Arafat started in 1968 (Actually 1958) the mission of preparing Palestinians to accept "peace" with zionist entity. HOW??

By the so-called Palestinian independant decision, ignoring that Palestine is south Syria, thus putting the Palestinian "independant" decision in the Saudis hands, especially after forming OIC in 1969.

The Jordan option that lead to Black September in 1970,

The civil war in Lebanon,1973 - 1976 -1982, and the Lebanon's option (1976),

This phase was crowned with the Israeli invasion and the shamful withdrawal from southern Lebanonto Beirutand the intoexileudrer the slogan "O' we are alone".Palestinians were not alone, they were there with the Lebanese national movement, and the Syrian Army. Instead of returning toDamascus,Arafatwentto Tunisfor the resumption of his contacts withPeres via AlanHart, until he was called to end the first INTIFADAH (Oslo).

The PLO-IRAN honey moon was too short and reached its end when tried to please the Americans in the hostages crisis.

Moreover, when we talk about the Liberation of Gaza, to be fare and remember:

Palestinians paid heavily for that due to the topographical, and geopolitical facts.

Gaza was a significant burden onIsraelto the extent thatRabin wished he would wakes upandfindsthat the seahadswallowedGaza.

Gaza hasbeenabletowithstandthe brutal siegeandinvasion,thanks to the blood of Martyrs and thesupportofHezbollah, Syria and Iran.

Finally, youshouldnotlose hope. I would say the conspiracy against the resistancecampwill not passandwillnotseethelightofday, the failureofthe global war onSyriawillchangethebalance of powerand the alignmentin favor oftheoptionofresistance. The real Arab spring has just started in both Egypt and Tunis and will not stop. Thanks for the greatsteadfastnessoftheSyrian people and its leadership.

MOSCOW, (SANA)_Russian President, Vladimir Putin,
called the international community to prevent extremists and international
terrorists from taking advantage of the tragedy unfolding in Syria for serving
their goals.

In a press conference following
talks with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Moscow on Thursday, Putin
recalled the terrorist bombing outside the Russian embassy in Damascus a week
ago that claimed several lives, among them children.

”Such brutal operation should
have drawn a strong international condemnation,” Putin said.

He said that he had ”heated”
talks with his French counterpart on Syria, adding he believes that the French
president has “agreed to certain views we had proposed.”

”Despite the differences in the
Russian and French stances on the Syrian crisis, we call for preserving Syria as
an undivided democratic state,” said Putin, adding ”we have plenty of common
denominators in the general assessment of the situation there.”

”It is our duty to heed our
partners’ views on certain aspects in this intricate issue and think it over,”
Putin said.

Putin indicated that the French
president had formulated new proposals on the crisis, adding he believes they
might be discussed with all partners.

Putin recalled Russia’s firm
position in backing the legitimate government and combating terrorists and
extremists everywhere, indicating that Russia stands by France on this as it
supported Paris in Mali.

For his part, Hollande renewed
his country’s intransigent stand on Syria, affirming that ”France and Russia are
working in two parallel courses on settling the crisis in Syria which are
difficult to reconcile…but we can confirm a tangible progress was made as we
share the same goal of fighting terrorism and preventing the disintegration of
the country.”

He called for pushing ahead with
the political dialogue without wasting time, considering that his responsibility
lies in finding an exit route from the crisis.

Hollande said France considers
that the settlement in Syria is ”impossible in the context of cooperation with
President Bashar al-Assad,” although acknowledging that other sides consider
president al-Assad a representative of the Syrian people.

Churkin: Syria Will Be among Russia’s
Focal Issues during Its UNSC Presidency

In another context, Russia’s
Permanent Representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, stressed that the situation
in Syria will be among the focal issues which Moscow will focus on during its
rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in March.

Speaking to Russia Today TV,
Churkin pointed out that the Russian and American stances on the crisis in Syria
have converged to some extent, calling for following the path of dialogue to
solve this crisis.

He reaffirmed that Russia’s
stance is clear and simple as it believes in the need to halting the violence
and starting dialogue without preconditions based on Geneva Statement.

Churkin said that the
international community cannot solve the crisis in Syria without the Syrians
themselves.

“We can help them in getting out
of the crisis, and this is what Russia is doing by talking to the government and
the opposition,” he added.

Russia Committed to all
Arms Deals Signed with Syria

Russian Security Council
Secretary Nikolai Patrushev stressed on Thursday that Russia is committed to all
arms deals signed with Syria, reiterating his country’s concerns over the U.S.
plans in the field of anti-missiles defenses in Europe.

Meeting Head of the Polish
National Security Bureau, Stanisław Koziej, Patrushev said, “We have to
implement the deals that we have signed.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry was due to discuss the
Syria crisis with Turkey's leaders on Friday in talks likely to be strained by
controversial comments by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan branding Zionism a
"crime against humanity."

The talks come a day after Washington announced that it would for the first
time provide direct aid to Syrian rebels in the form of food and medical
supplies as well as $60 million in extra assistance to the political
opposition.

The two-year civil war in neighboring Syria will top the agenda for Kerry,
who is due to meet with President Abdullah Gul, Erdogan and Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu.

But the talks are likely to be overshadowed by renewed tension between Turkey
and the Zionist entity, two major Washington allies, following comments Erdogan
made earlier this week at the UN-sponsored forum in Vienna.

"As is the case for Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it is inevitable that
Islamophobia be considered a crime against humanity," Erdogan said.

His comments were dubbed as "a dark and mendacious statement," by Zionist
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while Washington strongly stated that
"characterization of Zionism as a crime against humanity... is offensive and
wrong."

Turkey, once a close ally of Syria, has joined the west in its campaign to
oust the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and has given shelter to Syrian
militant opposition groups and to nearly 200,000 refugees along its volatile
border.

In January, the United States began deploying Patriot missiles, along with
Germany and the Netherlands, as part of a NATO mission to protect Turkey from
any spillover of the Syrian conflict.

Kerry was also due to attend a memorial ceremony in Ankara, in honor of the
US embassy guard who was killed in a February 1 suicide attack claimed by the
anti-US group the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKP-C.)

Among the issues on his agenda during the talks is also Washington's pressure
for increasing sanctions on Iran for its peaceful nuclear program.

Iran is Turkey's second-biggest natural gas supplier after Russia, and third
biggest in oil.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi (R) listens
near his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem during a press conference part of a
visit that aimed at ending the nearly two-year conflict in Syria on March 2,
2013 in the Iranian capital Tehran. Close Damascus ally Iran expects Bashar
al-Assad to remain Syria's president until elections next year, Salehi said.
(Photo: AFP - Atta Kenare)

Published Saturday, March 2, 2013

Close Damascus ally Iran expects Bashar al-Assad to remain Syria's president
until elections next year, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on
Saturday.

"The official position of Iran is that... Assad will remain legitimate
president until the next... election" in 2014, Salehi said at a news conference
with his visiting Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Muallem.
Muallem arrived on Saturday for talks aimed at ending the nearly two-year
conflict in Syria that the United Nations says has killed at least 70,000 people
and is tearing the country apart.

His visit comes after a week of intense international diplomacy aimed at
ending the bloodshed.
Salehi threw Iran's weight behind Damascus's call this week for dialogue with
the armed opposition, calling the initiative a "positive step," but reiterated
Assad's regime has "no choice" but to keep fighting rebels.

"We believe that the crisis has no military solution and only a Syrian
political one," said the Iranian minister.

"Iran firstly wants stop to the bloodshed but the Syrian government has no
choice but to fight against the terrorists and we cannot ask the Syrian
government not to do so and leave them alone," he added.
Muallem condemned the announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry on
Thursday that Washington would provide $60 million in "non-lethal" assistance to
support the Syrian political opposition.

"When the US (says it has) allocated $60 million to the opposition and this
opposition is killing people, I don't understand this initiative... are there
any weapons that do not kill people? Who are you kidding?" Muallem asked.

He repeated calls for pressure to be exerted on Turkey and Qatar, among the
main supporters of the rebels alongside Western countries.

While in Tehran, Muallem is also due to meet the secretary of the Supreme
National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, Mehr news agency reported.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has said that his government is
ready to talk to armed rebels as well as the armed opposition, after two years
of bloody political deadlock between the two parties.

"We believe in a political solution and say to the Syrians, stop the
bloodshed," Moallem said at the joint press conference.

"Even the armed fighter has a role to play in building the future of Syria."

Syrian external opposition chief Moaz al-Khatib has said talks with the
government would be held only if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stepped down.

He later said of the United States which pledged over $60 million in aid to
the opposition earlier this week: "The United States can end the bloodshed if it
wished for a political solution."

"I do not understand how the United States can give support to groups that
kill the Syrian people," he said.

"This is nothing but a double-standard policy ... one who seeks a political
solution does not punish the Syrian people," he added.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

River toSeaUprooted PalestinianThe views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

The US State Department, and to a greater extent, US foreign policy itself,
having exhausted completely their collective credibility, has attempted yet
another “reset.” By bringing in John Kerry to pose as the next US Secretary of
State, it is hoped global opinion will see US foreign policy in a new, more
tolerant light. Kerry, however, has wasted no time attempting to simply resell
verbatim the same failed, absurd policy US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
destroyed her career peddling, spinning, and covering up – as finalized in the
case of Benghazi, Libya.

Image:
US Secretary of State John Kerry talks with pro-Al
Qaeda Mouaz al-Khatib, who heads the militant front set to receive an
additional $60 million in US aid claimed to be “non-lethal.” The UK, and more
astonishingly, France who is fighting terrorists in Mali created by a similar
intervention in Libya in 2011, have announced similar plans to further aid and
abet terrorists in Syria.

The Obama administration will provide food and medicine to Syrian rebel
fighters, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Thursday, announcing a cautious
U.S. foray into front-line battlefield support that falls far short of the heavy
weapons or high-tech gear the rebels seek.
“The stakes are really high, and we can’t risk letting this country — in the
heart of the Middle East — be destroyed by vicious autocrats or hijacked by the
extremists,” Kerry said following discussions among a group of Western and Arab
nations that are funding, and in some cases arming, the
fighters.

The United States will, for the first time, send supplies through the rebels’
central military headquarters, with U.S. advisers supervising the distribution
of food rations and medical supplies, U.S. officials said. The shift is intended
to give the U.S.-backed Syrian Opposition Coalition greater say over the aid,
but it is also a test of the rebels’ ability to keep donated supplies out of the
hands of extremists in their midst.

The Washington Post report is a verified lie. US assistance, cash, weapons,
and covert military support had been ongoing in Syria since 2007 – in other
words – before the current conflict even began. And the US has been providing
this support not for moderates, but specifically and intentionally for the
ideological foundation of Al Qaeda itself, the sectarian extremist Muslim
Brotherhood, since the Bush administration.

Outright admissions by administration officials, Saudi and Lebanese officials
working in tandem with the US, and US intelligence agents have outlined a
criminal conspiracy that has now transcended two presidencies and provided the
clearest example yet of the corporate-financier driven “continuity of agenda”
that truly guides Western foreign policy. This criminal conspiracy has also
incurred a staggering list of egregious crimes against humanity, crimes we are
reminded of daily by the very interests responsible for them, including the
70,000 alleged dead in the Syrian conflict so far.

Secretary John Kerry’s Narrative is a Verified Lie

Secretary Kerry’s “desire” to keep weapons out of the hands of extremists is
willfully disingenuous misdirection. It has been extremists the US has been, on
record, purposefully propping up in Syria years before the conflict even began
in 2011.

“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration
has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In
Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which
is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the
Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in
clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these
activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a
militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al
Qaeda.”

Hersh’s report would also include:

“the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and
logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The
Israelis believe that putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it
more conciliatory and open to negotiations.”

Hersh also reported that a supporter of the Lebanese pro-US-Saudi Hariri
faction had met Dick Cheney in Washington and relayed personally the importance
of using the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria in any move against the ruling
government:

“[Walid] Jumblatt then told me that he had met with Vice-President Cheney in
Washington last fall to discuss, among other issues, the possibility of
undermining Assad. He and his colleagues advised Cheney that, if the United
States does try to move against Syria, members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood
would be “the ones to talk to,” Jumblatt said.”

The article would continue by explaining how already in 2007 US and Saudi
backing had begun benefiting the Brotherhood:

“There is evidence that the Administration’s redirection strategy has already
benefitted the Brotherhood. The Syrian National Salvation Front is a coalition
of opposition groups whose principal members are a faction led by Abdul Halim
Khaddam, a former Syrian Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the
Brotherhood. A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, “The Americans have
provided both political and financial support. The Saudis are taking the lead
with financial support, but there is American involvement.” He said that
Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, was getting money from Saudi Arabia, with the
knowledge of the White House. (In 2005, a delegation of the Front’s members met
with officials from the National Security Council, according to press reports.)
A former White House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of
the Front with travel documents.”

At one point in Hersh’s report, it is even admitted that officials from US
ally Saudi Arabia admitted to “controlling” the “religious fundamentalists.” The
report states specifically:

“…[Saudi Arabia's] Bandar and other Saudis have assured the White House that
“they will keep a very close eye on the religious fundamentalists. Their message
to us was ‘We’ve created this movement, and we can control it.’ It’s not that we
don’t want the Salafis to throw bombs; it’s who they throw them
at—Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran, and at the Syrians, if they continue to
work with Hezbollah and Iran.”

While Kerry, as did Clinton before him, and others throughout the Western
establishment attempt to portray the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its
armed front, Al Qaeda, in Syria as an unforeseeable, unfortunate consequence of
an equally unforeseeable, unfortunate conflict – it is clear that in 2007, such
“consequences” were essential elements of a premeditated conflict the West had
poured cash, weapons, and logistics into the creation of, along with its
partners in the Middle East, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

Also in 2007, the Wall
Street Journal would publish a report titled, “To Check Syria,
U.S. Explores Bond With Muslim Brothers.” In this report, it was revealed
that even in 2007, Syrian opposition groups were being created from whole-cloth
by the US State Department and paraded around in front of Syria’s embassies in
the West. The article begins with one such protest, stating:

On a humid afternoon in late May, about 100 supporters of Syria’s largest
exile opposition group, the National Salvation Front, gathered outside
Damascus’s embassy here to protest Syrian President Bashar Assad’s rule. The
participants shouted anti-Assad slogans and raised banners proclaiming: “Change
the Regime Now.”

Later in the article, it
would be revealed that the National Salvation Front (NSF) was in contact with
the US State Department and that a Washington-based consulting firm in fact
assisted the NSF in organizing the rally:

In the weeks before the presidential election, the State Department’s Middle
East Partnership Initiative, which promotes regional democracy, and NSF members
met to talk about publicizing Syria’s lack of democracy and low voter turnout,
participants say. A Washington-based consulting firm, C&O Resources Inc.,
assisted the NSF in its planning for the May 26 anti-Assad rally at the Syrian
embassy, providing media and political contacts. State Department officials
stress they provided no financial or technical support to the
protestors.

And while the Wall Street Journal then, just as the US State Department and
the Western media houses are now portraying the Syrian opposition as
representing a wide range of interests across Syrian society, it was admitted
then, just as it is plainly obvious now, that the sectarian extremist Muslim
Brotherhood was in fact at the very center of the “uprising:”

One of the NSF’s most influential members is the Syrian branch of the Muslim
Brotherhood — the decades-old political movement active across the Middle East
whose leaders have inspired the terrorist groups Hamas and al Qaeda. Its Syrian
offshoot says it has renounced armed struggle in favor of democratic
reform.

It was evidently clear, even in 2007, that extremists would play a leading
role in any future armed conflict to overthrow the Syrian government, and now,
years later, that engineered conflict has been executed verbatim and to horrific
consequence – consequences the West not only refuses to take responsibility for,
but seeks to further compound with increased aid to the forces of armed sedition
it itself created.

Absurdity of Kerry’s Narrative Only Outdone by Proposed Solution

The solution Kerry proposes
is to flood Syria with more cash, equipment, training, weapons, and other aid,
either directly, or laundered through proxies such as Al
Qaeda’s chief financiers and arms providers, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The
Washington Post’s report states:

The goal of the new money is to counter the increasingly effective network of
services provided by militants.

Unfortunately, the
so-called “Syrian Opposition Coalition” handcrafted by the US, and founded in
Doha, Qatar, is led by an extremist, Mouaz al-Khatib, who openly embraces Al
Qaeda’s al-Nusra front in Syria, credited with some of the most heinous
atrocities committed during the 2 year conflict, as well as
systematic abuse, oppression, and subjugation in all areas along Syria’s
border with NATO-member Turkey it controls.

“The decision to consider a party that is fighting the regime as a terrorist
party needs to be reviewed. We might disagree with some parties and their ideas
and their political and ideological vision. But we affirm that all the guns of
the rebels are aimed at overthrowing the tyrannical criminal
regime.”

Coalition chairman Mouaz
al-Khatib angrily appealed for a humanitarian corridor to the besieged city of
Homs and said the rebels are tired of Western complaints about extremists
in their ranks. He argued that the real enemy is the Assad regime but said
too many outsiders are worried only about “the length of a beard of a
fighter.”

“No terrorists in the world have such a savage nature as those in the
regime,” Khatib said in Arabic.

The Syrian opposition leader’s finger-jabbing anger was in marked contrast to
Kerry’s clipped and measured tone. Kerry looked at Khatib without expression as
the Syrian spoke.

And yet this US-created “opposition” movement, run by a leader openly
embracing and defending Al Qaeda, will be the recipient of some $60 million in
“non-lethal aid” and “training” to allegedly “undermine” Al Qaeda. The
Washington Post indicated that France and the UK were even considering sending
armored vehicles to the openly pro-Al Qaeda front.

The face-value absurdity of current Western foreign policy in the wake of a
decade-long “War on Terror” that has left it bankrupt, thousands of its soldiers
dead, tens of thousands more maimed or mentally ill, is perhaps so profoundly
acute, it is hoped it is easier to instead believe US Secretary of State John
Kerry’s repeated lies.

The exhausted legitimacy of the West, punctuated by unhinged hypocrisy, and
rapidly unraveling financial and military might, would seem a perfect
opportunity for the United Nations to prove its relevance or legitimacy by
condemning the purposeful expansion of an already intolerable proxy war
initiated by Western interests. Instead, it remains silent, or worse yet,
complicit in the premeditated, documented assault on Syria under the
increasingly tenuous guise of “democracy promotion,” “revolution,” and
“humanitarian concern.”

Nations existing outside
the West’s unraveling international enterprise would do best to continue
resisting, and increasingly condemning the overt state-sponsorship of terrorism
that is destroying Syria. For the rest of us, we must identify
the corporate-financier interests driving this agenda – interests we most
likely patronize on a daily basis, and
both boycott and permanently
replace them to erode the unwarranted influence they have used to both plan
and execute this assault on Syria’s people.

River toSeaUprooted PalestinianThe views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

An image of a Palestinian child in the crosshairs of a gun posted on an Israeli soldier’s Instagram account went viral in February after being published by the Electronic Intifada, the US-based blog on Palestinian issues, attracting widespread negative attention in international media. Israeli authorities were quick to assure that this was not a typical case and that the photo did not accurately portray the Israeli military. A few days later, more disturbing pictures of soldiers, including Rambo-like posing and hailing the killing of Arabs, went viral.

According to Rebecca Stein, a professor at Duke University, the use of social media by the soldier on the ground to capture his or her everyday life is nothing new. In a phone interview with Al-Monitor, Stein explained that what makes the Instagram images interesting is the way of aestheticizing the military and thereby normalizing warfare and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

"It becomes clear the extent to which the occupation as a reigning paradigm in Israel is now so banal that it can be rendered in an aestheticized form and circulated like a souvenir,” said Stein.

Yehuda Shaul is a former Israeli soldier and cofounder of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organization that gathers testimonies of veteran combatants to reveal the reality of everyday life as soldiers in the occupied territories. He was not surprised to see the Instagram photo, which he said was almost identical to an image from the second intifada.

"It’s just a fact that in 2013 there is Instagram. It’s not like the disrespect for Palestinian life wasn’t there before Facebook, for instance. It just gives another window into the mindset of what it means being a soldier and how you see Palestinians when you serve in the Palestinian territories — and the answer to that is, not as equal human beings to you,” said Shaul in a phone interview with Al-Monitor. ”[As a soldier] you stand at your post for eight hours, bored to death, and you look for ways to pass some time. Taking pictures through your scope is just something you do.”

Israel authorities aestheticize military culture
The Israeli army guaranteed that the recent case attracting so much attention would be “examined and properly handled,” referring to investigations into whether any criminal acts had taken place. Shaul finds this reaction nonsensical.

"The army is trying to dampen the PR damage while not giving any concern to the real problem this photo is portraying,” said Yehuda. ”It’s not about whether we commit crimes according to the criminal law, but about whether we commit crimes to the moral laws we want to stand up to.”

Stein has been researching new media technologies in connection with the Israeli occupation since Operation Cast Lead in 2008–2009. According to her, the army as well as the state and its different branches of government have since that time been fully aware of the importance of new media and have tried to catch up with the highly digital young soldiers both on and off the battlefield.

Stein also points to the fact that social media tools are not only used by soldiers, but also by Israeli authorities, who have incorporated these tools into their "toolbox of military occupation and war.” While Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been a part of the army’s PR strategy for years, Instagram was added to the list prior to the Pillar of Defense campaign against Gaza in November 2012.

“The operation mission in 2012 made it abundantly clear to anyone who had any doubts about the central role of new media, both in the hands of Israelis and Palestinians on the ground, but also in the hands of the state. Instagram was being used as a platform to celebrate military culture and the targeting of Palestinians,” said Stein.

While it seems that the Israel Defense Forces has taken down its Instagram platform, posting only a select few images on its blog, more can be viewed in a November feature in the New Inquiry, an independent online magazine.

Racism is nothing new
The message of racism and targeting of Palestinians expressed in Israeli soldiers’ Instagram images is apparently not confined to social media. In recent weeks, Israeli media have featured cases of young Israeli Jews who attacked Arab Israelis. During the Jewish holiday of Purim, 40-year-old Hassan Ausruf was severely beaten in Tel Aviv by a group of Israeli youths who, according to Ausruf, shouted racist incitements. On Feb. 26 in Jerusalem, an eyewitness took pictures of an alleged hate crime in which a Jewish woman attacked a Muslim woman, tearing off her head scarf, at a light rail stop.

Hebrew University professor Moshe Zimmerman, a historian specializing in anti-Semitism in Europe and the role of the Holocaust in Israel and postwar Germany, warned some 20 years ago about the growing issue of racism among Israeli youth.

“What is happening now is just a demonstration of what has already been going on for a long time. There is a feeling that Jews are superior to others, and there is a lot of hate to[ward] ‘the other.’ All the racism that we know from European and American history is also found in the Israeli society,” said Zimmerman in a phone interview with Al-Monitor.
Zimmerman attributes the culture of racism to a process of socialization in formal and informal education, which is also reflected among young Israeli soldiers. “The military is the outcome. You educate the Israeli youth to believe in a racist ideology, and the first place where they can practice this is in the army when being confronted by Palestinians in the Palestinian territories,” said Zimmerman.

According to Zimmerman, there is little being done to tackle the issue of racism. He would like to see a bigger effort, especially in the education system, to confront this racist trend.

Lena Odgaard is a Danish journalist reporting from around the Middle East, mainly on Israel and Palestine. She tweets @l_odgaard.

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